| Mahler had completed his first three symphonies, and Mascagni and Leoncavallo were creating new orchestral colours in their verismo operas. |
| As befits a verismo opera, Puccini's work is rooted in the real Rome rather than in that of the imagination. |
| The saving grace to the whole artistic endeavour is that the works are classic verismo operas with sky-high true-life grit. |
| But peasants had made it to centre stage even in the opera house, and operatic verismo would become an established form. |
| The end of the book includes a short glossary of terms to help readers with certain concepts such as bel canto, leitmotif and verismo. |
| Its setting is the Passion cycle, and the grisly subject matter perfectly suits the artist's verismo style. |
